Excellent!

I've not grown garlic yet, but it's on my want-to list. Now I'll know when it's ready, and how to harvest and properly dry it. Now I just need to remember to get some at the proper planting time for my area.

Thanks, Dave!

And having a string like that hanging in your porch would definitely reduce your risk of a vampire invasion Sorry - couldn't resist. Love the step by step instructions!

Oh, this is good information! I once grew some garlic (a friend had given me some home-grown garlic, and it started to sprout before I used it, so I planted them!), but I was never sure how to tell when it was ready to harvest. Going to have to try it again. Um, is it ok to snip off bits of leaves while the plant is growing?

This post is very helpful Dave. We find ourselves growing more and more garlic each year. We purchased our original cloves from Boundary Garlic in BC, Canada and they are the hard neck variety so we don't braid them. I think we have included most of what we grow in our list. After we harvest and clean them we hang them in the garage to cure for a month or so and then cut off the stalks and store them in labelled net bags in our cellar. Temp is usually around 60 F, sometimes a bit lower.

We've learned a lot from the Boundary Garlic website here: https://www.garlicfarm.ca and they are constantly adding new info. We don't store garlic in the fridge. If it's too cold the garlic will germinate. Last year we planted 125 and we just ran out this week. This year our count is around 255. The flavour is so superb that we will plant even more this fall.

There's a Garlic Growers' Field Day this Saturday, June 8th in Brant, Ontario which we plan to attend. There's much to learn : )
http://www.eventbrite.ca/event...

I don't grow garlic but I sure did enjoy the tutorial!

Great information and love having all the photos to go with it. I was a bit surprised to see you cleaning the garlic by the pool though

Thanks for the good information. I don't have a dedicated garlic bed so sometimes have trouble finding it among the other plants. I am guessing you cut the bloom before you get to the harvest stage. Atleast I know to look at the stalk now.

Hetty, that line is actually old telephone wire!! I had some lying around and stretched it between posts on the porch and it worked perfectly. We use it for hanging herbs, onions and garlic (and anything else that needs hangin'!)

tinpins: great info! And those are some fantastic looking garlics you've got there. Do you clean them before you hang them?

woofie: I don't snip any of the leaves. Anna, I do snip off any blooms that try to appear.

Arlene, I was careful to keep the debris out of the pool.

Now you tell us! I dug mine before all the leaves were dried. I'll know next year, tho.

Great tutorial Dave. I planted a lot last year in most all my beds so this will come in really handy. One has sent up a bloom bud and I'd like to see what it looks like. Does bloom reduce yield or flavor or...?

Dave ... in answer to your question about cleaning the garlic. Yes, we did clean them last year ... the ground was pretty moist when it was time to harvest them and they had a lot of soil clinging to them. We laid them on the grass and hosed them very lightly then put them in the shade to dry off before hanging them in the garage.

These photos are of last year's Persian Star Purple Stripe ...

tinpins said:Last year we planted 125 and we just ran out this week.

When did you harvest last year tinpins? About how long does freshly dug and cured garlic last?

We harvested on July 15th last year. We don't use it until it has dried for a couple of months. Then we hang them in net bags and put identifying tags on the bags. They lasted well storing them in the cool cellar at that temp (60F). There was only a hint of one variety beginning to sprout just in the last few weeks. But they are all finished this week

We don't compost anything from the garlic. That goes out in the trash and we rotate the beds each year.

One of the things we use this for (almost every day : ) is to make a dressing. Chop up a clove really fine and add a small quantity of olive oil and a splash of lemon juice. It's superb on fresh or cooked kale (and yes we grow a lot of kale and swiss chard too) or stirred into a bowl of freshly cooked white beans. These varieties we are growing have a wonderful flavour and don't leave a strong garlic after taste in your mouth.

Here's the Dan's Russian drying in the shade from last year and the photo below is taken this morning ... it's only just light here (6 am) so the image quality is not great, but you can at least see the stage that the garlic is at.

Great photos, tinpins. Thank you for sharing!

I wonder what varieties do well in Texas. You made me hungry!

We've tried several varieties and this year we're recording our findings.

The Garlic (Allium sativum 'Uzbek Turban') was our earliest and produced very, very large cloves of somewhat hot garlic. I really enjoyed it but wow, it was surprisingly sharp.

Garlic (Allium sativum 'Early Red Italian') was eaten with butter and bread last night and I found it to be very sweet and I liked it. The cloves were average sized and quite early (but not as early as Uzbek Turban).

We're growing 6 other varieties this year and I'm recording my notes on them all and will post each as a comment to the database.

This is what we ordered and planted last fall:

http://www.filareefarm.com/see...

Trying a variety pack is a good idea, both to try different varieties and to learn what you like. This year, in addition to Elephant Garlic (really a segmented leek), is Persian Star, Chinese Pink, Turkish Giant, and one more whose name escapes me at the moment. The Chinese Pink is showing signs of being close to harvest.

Thanks for that info, tinpins.

I'm wondering though, if ours is finished in July it'll likely be very humid here then; maybe I'd need to dry it indoors?

Thanks for the information...I'll be checking!